The Dalvik VM doesn't accept Java VM bytecode. The Java language is what all the tools work on currently for creating executable images for the VM, and precompiled class files are also converted. If someone were so inclined, Dalvik could use lisp or c or befunge in much the same way that other languages have been compiled to work on the Java VM.

Posted
by
Soulskillon Monday August 23, 2010 @02:52PM
from the never-should-have-given-them-that-acid dept.

mysidia writes "Last month, it was mentioned that the OpenSolaris governing board issued an ultimatum to Oracle. It turns out that Oracle continued to ignore requests to appoint a liaison after the governing board's demands. This morning, the board unanimously passed a resolution to dissolve itself. Source code changes are no longer available, and it would appear that OpenSolaris and community involvement in the development of Solaris have been killed as rumored. We recently discussed a 'Spork' of OpenSolaris called Illumos. Perhaps now, this will have a chance at becoming a true fork."

... my point was the Android at least doesn't require the tethering fee...

The Android OS doesn't. Your carrier usually does. AT&T only "allows" tethering on their system if you pay for it. If they catch you doing it they'll just add it to your account and backbill you for how long they think you've been doing it. Verizon is the same way (with their Blackberries, anyway).

When I was in high school we were required to wear our id badges on lanyards around our necks. The lanyard was small plastic tubing with a break in it "for safety". My sister and I were not particularly interested in wearing it, and began just clipping the badges to our shirts. Still clearly visible, just not on the lanyard.

Instantly, a shit storm erupted. Detentions and a suspension for insubordination and for failure to follow school policy (and for destruction of school property when we told them we'd thrown the plastic lanyard away).

Our father went to see the principal; he was told that the lanyards had "a safety release" to prevent choking and that we should feel safe. My father offered to demonstrate how holding on to the lanyard's "safety release" would allow someone to successfully choke a person wearing the lanyard. The principal declined (sadly), and back pedalled on his original stance. If we wore the badges "visibly" and carried our "excuse notes" for the lanyard, we would be excluded from the policy.

Ironically, within two weeks, a student was strangled during a fight with another student using the plastic lanyard from their id badge.

Honestly, were I writing malware, the first thing I'd do after something like that came out was try and figure out how to disable it. You can't trust anything on a compromised computer.

Sure, it might catch a few. Most likely the user will just ignore the warning, hoping it'll go away; then once the malware has an update that disables the warning, it will go away. Problem solved.

About the only thing that will fix the current spyware/malware problem would be smarter computer use and privilege separation. But in my experience users will click on anything just to get their shiny pointers.

I totally agree; I too was left very concerned after reading his thoughtful and thorough analysis. And I'm really disappointed that (practically) no one on Slashdot took a look at it. Especially after reading his analysis of confirmation bias and so on, the knee-jerk responses on this thread are particularly disheartening.